Inland Empire clergy support immigrant refugees in open letter

A group of clergy is calling on the Inland Empire to welcome immigrant refugees and for political leaders to protect the refugees by allowing access to resources and protection under the law.

In response to what they see as inactivity by Congress, the clergy caucus of Inland Congregations United for Change has published two open letters: one calling for action to help the refugees, the other defining the crisis as a humanitarian issue.

“The fact that the immigrants are here is not a matter of legality,” said David Starr, vicar of St. John’s Episcopal Church in San Bernardino, who signed a letter responding to the refugee crisis. “They are here illegally, however, you have to ask the question why. Why would some child face the dangers of a thousand-mile journey from their home in El Salvador, Honduras or Guatemala? I can tell you firsthand that the gang violence and threats to their lives are real. The question of why they’re here is very important.

“The second thing is regardless of how they got here or why they are here, these people are here. It’s a matter of justice that we offer them hospitality. It doesn’t mean we keep them forever.”

The two letters are signed by 15 Inland Empire religious leaders. They hope to redefine the debate as a humanitarian issue.

“Our testimony is that we try to live by community, peace and equality,” said Susan Spott, clerk of Inland Valley Friends Meeting, also known as Quakers, who signed the statement. “We’re all a community. Equality, how do we handle immigration? Granted things are different than 50 years ago, but if you’re going to let people into this country, and there are people being persecuted in their home countries, you have to figure out how to address those issues with equality.

“The fact is that this won’t go away. ... It will continue, and we need to look at how we can address it.”

The Senate voted 63-33 on Wednesday to advance a $3.5 billion emergency spending bill, which includes $2.7 billion for more immigration judges, detention facilities and enforcement measures.

But it was questionable whether the legislation would go through before the August recess. The Senate bill is also competing with another measure in the House that involves less money and includes policy changes.

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John Andrews, spokesman for the San Bernardino Diocese, which includes San Bernardino and Riverside counties, said the Inland Congregations United for Change letters echo the Catholic church’s view.

“The spirit of the letter is very much in line with what we have been saying as a church locally and nationally,” said Andrews. “We encourage people to pray about it, and we have a network of national and statewide system that encourages Roman Catholics to sign up and give at certain times to certain things, to call their federal representatives to advocate for a bill of funding that is going on.”

Dowell Meyers, an expert on immigration from USC, says the current refugee crisis is unrelated to the main debate surrounding immigration.

“People might be trying to make it part of the larger debate, but it’s not about jobs, it’s not about housing, it’s not about citizenship. It’s about children being dropped at the border,” Myers said. “It’s a very different thing, and the government doesn’t really have a solution because we don’t have an established procedure on how to deal with it.”

Rabbi Suzanne Singer of Temple Beth El in Riverside, who also signed the statement, said the issue reminds her of the Jews fleeing Germany and being turned away by various countries.

“Here are people fleeing violence. We’re saying, ‘No, we don’t have room for that,’” Singer said. “There’s a crisis going on, and these people are making a really dangerous journey, and they wouldn’t be doing it if it wasn’t worse where they’re coming from. We need to be compassionate and put themselves in that place. We need to be more compassionate as a country.”